Arkansas teachers to carry guns in school

When the new school year begins in Clarksville, Arkansas, some teachers will carry a slightly heavier workload — 9mm handguns.

The school district is making use of a state law that allows teachers to carry concealed handguns on campus.

Teachers and other staff have undergone dozens of hours of intensive weapons training in preparation for the new school year, but gun control advocates say more guns may exacerbate matters.

“If the best cops in the world are inadvertently hitting innocent pedestrians, what’s going to happen in a school if a gunman comes in and teachers pull out their guns?” said Colleen Daley of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence.

The new measures in Clarksville appear to be a response to a series of school shootings over the last decade. In December, a shooter at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., killed 20 children.